Advocate Bookshelf: Best Non-Fiction Transgender Books

BY Diane Anderson-Minshall

November 19 2011 7:30 PM ET

Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers ($12, Mariner Books)When lesbian journalist Cris Beam moved to Los Angeles, she planned to volunteer a few hours at a school for queer and trans kids. But what started as a simple assignment soon became part of a social group of trans girls who accept her into their world. In Transparent, Beam introduces us to these girls (Foxxjazell, Ariel, Christina, and Dominique) and their often heartbreaking but always defiant lives.